Well, my anticipated weekend of Tigers-White Sox baseball seems to be a bust. The rain in Chicago forced the postponement of Friday’s game and the postponement of today’s doubleheader. The remnants of Hurricane Ike are expected to reach here by tomorrow night and it’s beginning to look less and less likely that a game between these two divisional rivals will be played at all. If they do play tomorrow, a doubleheader is on tap. It’ll be a matchup between Justin Verlander and Javier Vasquez in game one and veteran Kenny Rogers and John Danks face-off in game two.

As the rain continues to fall, heavily at times, here in Detroit, I began thinking about two games that I attended this year that featured rain. I took my step-son to the Mother’s Day game between the Tigers and the Yankees on May 11th. He’s 15. His mom and I divorced 8 years ago and I’m very fortunate to still have him in my life. My ex-wife’s family is from New York and I thought Andrew might enjoy seeing a Yankees game. The last ball game we attended together was back in 1998 at Tiger Stadium. He had not yet been to Comerica Park.

The rain began falling at about 9. I like to get to the ballgame when the the gates open. I really like to watch batting practice and it gives me an opportunity to fill out my score card and enjoy the atmosphere of the ballpark. It just looked like one of those all day kind of rains, but we decided to chance it anyhow. If we didn’t get a game in, he could at least say he had been to the ballpark. When we got there, the tarp was on the field. We walked around the park and I showed him the statues of Wille Horton, Ty Cobb, Al Kaline, Hal Newhouser and Charlie Gehringer and Hank Greenberg. We got a dog and some pop. He really wanted the Dippin’ Dots though. Go figure!

Anyhow, we did the batting cage. He didn’t do so well, but he does throw a heckuva pitch. Sixty-one miles per hour on the gun and he’s got pretty good form. Something he picked up during his little league days. The game was eventually postponed and rescheduled for Labor Day.

The other game was the Dodger’s game on Father’s Day. I bought one ticket in the club level behind home plate. As I mentioned before, I’m also a Dodger’s fan and I looked forward all year to this game. The rookie phenom Clayton Kershaw was scheduled to pitch and I really wanted to see that!

The day started out nice. Some clouds, some sunshine throughout all of BP. Joe Torre, Jim Leyland and Dave Dombrowski were in a little huddle just outside of the Dodger’s dugout – talking. How I wish I could have heard that conversation! Derek Lowe was in the outfield catching and throwing, he paused, and turned to look up at the scoreboard to hear a story that was being told by Ernie Harwell. Being from the Detroit area, he knows and appreciates what Harwell means to Detroit and baseball.

As the game began, the clouds began to form and the rain began to fall. I stayed in my seat getting soaked up until the tarp was rolled out. It was only a 45 minute or so rain delay. The Tigers won the ballgame 5 – 4!

Speaking of the Dodger’s…

I’ll be watching their game tonight against the Rockies at Coors Field. Los Angeles is looking to win their fourth game in a row. They are 11 and 1 in their last twelve games.

These guys are on a roll!

Clayton Kershaw is pitching tonight! He’s 3-5 with a 4.60 ERA and a 1.56 WHIP.

BRANDON INGE

I’d like to express my deepest sympathies to Tiger’s catcher Brandon Inge and his family. Brandon’s grandfather passed away. He won’t be with the Tiger’s tomorrow, but should rejoin the team prior to Monday night’s game against the Rangers in Texas.

2 Responses to A Rainy Midwestern Weekend

Nice blog. You mentioned in your bio that, although you’re a Tigers fan, you like the Yankees too. As a diehard Yankee fan I appreciate that! You also said you’re a reader, so I hope you’ll check out my book about being a Yankee fan that’s coming out in February. Mostly I write novels, so this was my first chance to write a nonfiction book about my team and I loved every minute of it. I followed the Yankees to over two months’ worth of games last season, including Comerica. Don’t be mad when/if you read the book. I liked the stadium a lot and wrote that the food there was great. But remember that game against the Yankees where it rained and they ended up playing at 11pm? And the game didn’t end until 3am? I have a funny chapter about that one!

Thanks for looking in! Yes, I remember well the game against NYY, the night we played until 3:30am! I wasn’t at the game, but I stayed up and watched until i could barely keep my eyes open. I’m looking forward to reading your book, Especially that chapter about the marathon game!

I watched the Yankee’s game this afternoon, and saw Jeter tie Lou Gehrig with his HR.